STREET DOGS: Will AI make market timing easier?

JAPANESE researchers claim to have developed a computer capable of correctly predicting the rise and fall of the Japanese market 68% of the time. While computer algorithms have been used in share trading for decades — allowing high-frequency traders to close bets in fractions of a second and specialist asset managers to develop strategies determined by complex quantitative analysis — the use of artificial intelligence has been slow. Junsuke Senoguchi, an equity strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities in Tokyo, has built a machine capable of predicting the direction of Japanese shares. Every month, for four years, it has produced a single prediction: whether the Nikkei 225 Stock Average index will be higher or lower in 30 days time. From March 2012 to January 10 2016, the robo-forecaster has…